Airtel Telecom is Bangladesh’s sixth mobile operator with a customer base of one and half million. airtel Telecom’s operational activities in Bangladesh will aim to achieve a new and modern corporate identity, which is congruent with the dynamic changes taking place in the telecom industry of Bangladesh today. With a reflection of a new strategy, their aim is to be perceived not only as a telecommunication operator of voice services, but also as a universal provider of comprehensive communications services for both residential and business customers.

The topic of the report is –“Branding and promotional strategies of airtel Telecom in Bangladesh”. As a new operator, airtel uses both branding and promotional strategies to introduce their offers into the most crowded mobile market. They gives individual brand name for their different offers. They uses more promotional activities such as advertising, sales promotion, sponsorship program, public relation. airtel also help flood affected people. And airtel always evaluate their advertising effectiveness to recover the service gap.

While preparing the internship report some primary data are collected from the personnel of airtel. The customer opinion on branding and promotions of airtel Telecom is also used in this report. The data are analyzed through using MS Excel.

Introduction:

Mobile phone means a device that transmits voice or data, using radio waves to communicate with radio antennas placed within adjacent geographic areas called cells. It is a very common source of communication in these days. Most of the people are using mobile phone in the city and the urban areas. Telecommunication linked with satellites. It brings about revolutionary changes in communication. New STD (Standard) and ISD (International System for Dialog) facilities have made communication an instantaneous process. The world appears to have contracted or been squeezed into a small room in which, given certain facilities, it is possible to communicate with anyone in any part of the world.

Technologies Used in Mobile Phone:

Based on the technology mobile is divided into two types-

GSM: GSM stands for “Global System for Mobile”. GSM is mostly a European system and is largely unused in the US. GSM is interesting in that it uses a modified and far more efficient version of TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) and FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access). GSM is the combination of TDMA and FDMA. GSM keeps the idea of timeslots and frequency channels, but corrects several major shortcomings

CDMA: CDMA stands for “Code Division Multiple Access” and is both the most interesting and the hardest to implement multiplexing method. CDMA has been likened to a party: When everyone talks at once, no one can be understood, however, if everyone speaks a different language, then they can be understood. CDMA systems have no channels, but instead encode each call as a coded sequence across the entire frequency spectrum. Each conversation is modulated, in the digital domain, with a unique code (called a pseudo-noise code) that makes it distinguishable from the other calls in the frequency spectrum. Using a correlation calculation and the code the call was encoded with, the digital audio signal can be extracted from the other signals being broadcast by other phones on the network. From the perspective of one call, upon extracting the signal, everything else appears to be low-level noise. As long as there is sufficient separation between the codes (said to be mutually orthogonal), the noise level will be low enough to recover the digital signal. Each signal is not, in fact,

spread across the whole spectrum (12.5 MHz for traditional cellular or 60 MHz in PCS cellular), but is spread across 1.25 MHz “pass-bands.” CDMA systems are the latest technology on the market and are already eclipsing TDMA in terms of cost and call quality. Since CDMA offers far greater capacity and variable data rates depending on the audio activity, many more users can be fit into a given frequency spectrum and higher audio quality can be provide.

b. A Technical Comparison between GSM and CDMA Technology:

Advantages of GSM:

GSM is already used worldwide with over 450 million subscribers.

It offers international roaming facility to the subscribers.

GSM is matured enough; it started in the mid-80s. It means a more stable network with strong features.

Low power requirements and a little cell-to-cell coordination needed by operators.

Extended reach – beneficial to rural users situated far from cells.

Disadvantages of CDMA include:

Due to its proprietary nature, all of CDMA’s flaws are not known to the engineering community for solving.

CDMA is relatively new, and the network is not as mature as GSM.

CDMA cannot offer International Roaming, a large GSM advantage.

From the above discussion we can say that GSM technology based on the combination of TDMA and FDMA being better in today’s mobile communication.

c.Telecommunication Cycle:

The transmission of the sender’s ideas to the receiver and the receiver’s feedback or reaction to the sender constitute the telecommunication cycle. The main steps of this cycle is as follows-

Input: – the information or ideas the sender wants to send to the receiver.

Channel: – fax, phone call, electronic mail, etc.

Massage: – the actual massage that is send.

Output: – the information the receiver gets.

Feedback: – the receiver’s response (or non-response) to the massage.

Brain drain: – the possibility of misunderstanding at any step.

We can illustrate this cycle in the following way:-

At present, six different mobile companies are providing mobile phone connections in Bangladesh. In compare to the big population it is becoming a huge market for mobile phone service companies. Every company is trying to provide as much facilities as possible to do marketing campaign with there. TM International (Bangladesh) Limited is formed a huge demand in this sector. The company known with its brand name as Airtel across the country has more than two million subscribers both in Pre-paid and Post-paid forms.

Origin of the Report:

Each professional degree needs practical knowledge of the respective field of discipline to be fruitful. Our MBA program also has an Internship Program, relating to the exchange of theoretical knowledge into the real life. This report entitled “Customer Service in Airtel”. The main purpose of the preparation of the report is due to the partial fulfillment of the Internship Program of MBA Program conducted by the Department of Business Administration, SoutheastUniversity.

Objectives:

The general objectives of this study are to provide an overview of learning of an Intern during the Internship Program and fulfill the Internship requirement. Beside the general objective, this report can be categorized into main objective and specific objectives. The objectives behind this report are mentioned below:

a. Main Objective:

The main objective of this study is to prepare an Internship report on the specified topic working within an organization and implementing the knowledge that has been gathered during the Internship Program.

b. Specific Objectives:

The specific objectives of this report are as follows:

-To understand the reasons behind the preferences of subscribers for using Connection of Airtel.

-To identify the spending patterns of Airtel customers

The mobile industry is growing at a phenomenal pace these days. While it took the industry leader more than six years to reach its first million subscribers, its last million it had acquired in a bit more than 2 month period. With an annual growth rate of 132% in the industry itself, it can be said to be the fastest growing industry in the country.

Telecommunication established first in Bangladesh by the postal system through telegraph. Later, under government initiative and control, telephone was introduced and readily accepted by users as a useful device. But until the end 1970s, telephone service remained limited to government offices, business communities of large and medium towns, and a few privileged urban citizens.

After independence in 1971, Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone(T&T) Department was created under the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications to run the telecommunication services on a commercial basis. Private entrepreneurs are allowed in Bangladesh to provide telephone and e-mail service as operators. Now, there are six mobile phone companies operating in the telecommunication sector. These are:

Citycell (1989)

Robi (1996)

Grameen Phone (1996)

BanglaLink (2005)

Teletalk (2005)

Airtel (2010)

The total number of Mobile Phone Subscribers has reached 32.5 million at the end of July 2007.

Currently airtel Bangladesh provides both post-paid and pre-paid connection plans. The post-paid plan is branded and marketed across the country under the name :

(1). Airtel advantage

(2). Airtel classic

(3). Airtel execlusive

The pre-paid segment is branded and marketed as:

(1). Foorti

(2). Hoi choi

(3). ADDA

(4). Shobai

(5). GOLPO

(6). Dolbol

(7). KOTHA

(8). Bijoy 016

Sources of Data:

Data are facts, figures and other relevant materials serving as bases for study and analysis. The sources of data can be classified as two categories:

Primary sources

Secondary sources

Primary Sources:

Primary sources are original sources from which data are directly collected. The method of collecting primary data may be

Observation method

Interview method

Secondary Sources:

Secondary sources contain data which have been collected and complied for another purposes. The secondary sources consist of readily available reports and also some official documents.

Objectives of the Study:

Broad objectives of the study are:

To identify the branding and promotional strategies of airtel

To determine the customer opinion on branding and promotional strategies of airtel.

The specific objectives are:

To identify the role of brand.

To identify the brand identification strategies of airtel.

To determine customers opinion on the effectiveness of branding strategies.

To develop the marketing mix of airtel.

To identify the use of promotional tools.

To determine customers opinion on the way of using different promotional tools.

To determine the SWOT analysis of airtel.

Methodology of the study:

The methodology of this report includes the overall research design, the sampling procedure, the data collection method, field work and analysis. All of these components of research are briefly described below:

Research Design

This research is conclusive in nature. Conclusive research is one that is able to establish a conclusion. So by this piece of report, I will be able to make some decisions which help to support the research objectives. Furthermore, statistical structure has been used in this report to make the report in terms of informative outlook.

Sampling Procedure

In this report, the sampling unit is airtel subscribers of Bangladesh. I have collected data from the students of Dhaka University and also from Shahjahanpur area. I have selected them randomly. The sample size of this study is 10.

Data Collection

Both the primary and secondary data has been collected for this report as per requirement.

Primary Sources:

Questionnaire to the company personnel’s.

Questionnaire to the company subscribers.

Secondary Sources:

Newspaper & magazine ads

Web sight: www.airtel.com.bd .

Field Work

For this research, I have collected information on branding and promotional strategies from company personnel. And I also have collected customer opinion on the branding and promotional strategies of airtel.

Limitations of the study:

Schedule time span of the respondent of company was insufficient for getting answer of all necessary questions.

Information regarding the survey sometimes created confidentiality for the respondent. Therefore, approximation was fitted in some occasion.

It was very difficult to get appoinment of the company personnel.

In this study, I had to take small sample size, because the subscriber of airtel are still small in number.

The cost of preparing a research paper is very high. So, this paper may not be like the standard one.

Literature Review:

Marketing Mix For Services

An essential element of any marketing strategy is the marketing mix. The origins of the concept of the marketing mix are described by Borden in his classic paper.Borden’s original list of marketing mix elements has since been regrouped and represented by others. One of the most popular frameworks in the marketing literature is presented by McCarthy as the four ‘P’s’:

1.Product

2.Price

3.Place

4.Promotion

But Booms and Biter provide a satisfactory guide for service marketers. Their modified and expanded marketing mix for services consists of seven elements. The seven elements in this marketing mix for services are:

a) Product

b) Price

c) Place

d) Promotion

e) People

f) Physical evidence

g) Process

Brand Identification Strategies

One of several brand identification options may be appropriate for a company. The major identification alternatives are:

Specific Product Branding: The strategy of assigning a brand name to a specific product.

Product-Line Branding: This strategy places a brand name on a line of related products.

Corporate Branding: This strategy builds brand identity by using the corporate name to identify the product offering.

Combination Branding: A company may use a combination of the branding strategies.

Budgeting Approaches

Affordable method: Top management may specify how much can be spent on promotion.

Competitive Parity method: Promotion expenditures for this budgeting method are guided by how much competitors spend.

Objective and Task method: Management sets the communications objectives, determines the tasks necessary to achieve the objectives, and adds up the costs.

Percentage of Sales method: Using this method, the budge is calculated as a percent of sales and is therefore quite arbitrary. The percentage figure is often based on past expenditure patterns.

Overview of the Company:

Historical Background of airtel Telecom

In July 2007,Warid telecom takes pride in being backed by the Abu Dhabi Group, one of the largest groups in the Middle East and the single largest foreign investor group in Pakistan. It has a diversified business interest in the institutions that have enjoyed commercial success as a result of its strong financial resources and extensive management expertise.

Bharti Airtel is making a fresh investment of USD 300 million to rapidly expand the operations of Warid Telecom and have management and board control of the company. This is the largest investment in Bangladesh by an Indian company. Dhabi Group continues as a strategic partner retaining 30% shareholding and has its nominees on the Board of the Company.

The new funding is being utilised for expansion of the network, both for coverage and capacity, and introduction of innovative products and services. As a result of this additional investment, the overall investment in the company will be in the region of USD 1 billion.

This is Bharti Airtel’s second operation outside of India. The company launched its mobile services in Sri Lanka in January 2009 on a state-of-the-art 3.5G network. The company crossed the 1 million customers mark within six months of launch on the back of innovative offerings as well as rapid expansion of network coverage and distribution.

The Abu Bharti Group’s major investments are in the following sectors:

Bharti Airtel

Bharti Infratel Limited

Bharti Realty Limited

Beetel Teletech Limited

Jersey and Guernsey

Centum Learning Limited

Bharti Walmart

Bharti Retail

Bharti AXA Life Insurance

Bharti AXA General Insurance

Indus Towers

FieldFresh Foods Pvt. Ltd

Vision

By 2015 Airtel will be the most loved brand, enriching the lives of millions.

Enriching lives means putting the customer at the heart of everything we do. We will meet their needs based on our deep understanding of their ambitions, wherever they are. By having this focus we will enrich our own lives and those of our other key stakeholders. Only then will we be thought of as exciting, innovation, on their side and a truly world class company.

Mission

To provide total customer satisfaction the company strives to become the most preferred GSM cellular service provider in Bangladesh. Bharati Group will achieve this through developing people, products, and services of the highest quality and meeting the needs of its customers, employees, shareholders, society and the nation.

The Airtel Slogan – “Valobasar Tane Pase Ane”

The whole is the sum of parts and when the best come together; the results can be truly spectacular. Bharati Group brings Airtel Mobile phone service, a digital cellular phone service, which will prepare better for life in the fast lane. Airtel GSM always keeps so near, even when so far.

Values

airtel Telecom’s brand values include:

Quality– We want to make a difference to people’s lives. Our optimism is contagious. We are passionate about what we do and we have confidence in ourselves.

Simplicity – For us, clarity comes through simplicity. We recognize that we are people communicating with other people. We are always direct and easy to understand.

Innovation – We constantly look to do things differently and in a better way. We give color to all that we do. We are ready to push the boundaries and take risks.

Honesty – We are always open and honest. We say what we do and we do what we say.

Friendliness – We enjoy working and succeeding together by building close relationships. While we have a sense of purpose, we also have a sense of humor. We consider the needs both of our customers and of each other.

NGN (Next Generation) Network:

The network that has been deployed in Bangladesh by airtel is based on the NGN or Next-Generation Technology- a future-proof architectural system which ensures optimum utilization of frequency and enhances speed and quality of both voice and data services.

Numbering Scheme:

airtel Bangladesh uses the following numbering scheme:

+880 16 N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8

Where, 880 is the ISD code for Bangladesh and is needed only in case of dialling from outside Bangladesh.

16 is the prefix for airtel Bangladesh as allocated by the government of Bangladesh. Omitting +880 will require to use 0 in place of it instead to represent local call, hence 016 is the general prefix.

N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8 is the subscriber number.

Products Offered:

Currently airtel Bangladesh provides both post-paid and pre-paid connection plans. The post-paid plan is branded and marketed across the country under the name :(1). Airtel advantage

(2). Airtel classic

(3). Airtel execlusive

The pre-paid segment is branded and marketed as:

(1). Foorti

(2). Hoi choi

(3). ADDA

(4). Shobai

(5). GOLPO

(6). Dolbol

(7). KOTHA

(8). Bijoy 016

Marketing Policy:

a. Customer Segmentation

Individual businessman, entrepreneur professionals and established organizations are the main customers of Airtel. They have also a target to take students and low-income groups with their introduction of Airtel simple rate Pre-Paid services. They target high class people by the post-paid service. To serve the market more accurately their target market will be further segmented based on psychographics and business size.

b.Marketing Strategies

TMIB always wants to achieve desired sales growth and customer base. Airtel wants to encourage existing customers to use more and more of their services.

Their newly introduced package named “Eid Double Bonus” is one of their successful initiatives for the exiting customer It has a concept of “Customer gets Customer”

c. Product Positioning

Initially their target was to reach the top. But others are targeting to the grass root level, and increasing their customer. Airtel wants to be the leader with good quality and is designing products for the middle class range also.

d.Marketing Product Mix

Product—

• Continuous improvement of quality.

• Reposition of slow moving products to different target markets.

• Always branding Airtel with all packages with a GSM service

Price—

•Necessary changes in tariff structure, and changes in terms and conditions.

• Penetration pricing in the face of competition.

• Skimming policy where possible.

Place—

• Make effective use of distribution.

• Make product and service delivery system more effective and less time consuming.

Main competitor has a congested network because of its unplanned customer growth.

Threat-

Unstable political culture.

Recession in the economy.

Non-cooperative telecommunication regulatory body.

Possible health risk for using mobile phone.

Market Development:

Airtel GSM are trying to convert non-users to mobile phone users, stressing the benefit of GSM services, and with the service benefit of Airtel that will make their life easier. To serve the market more accurately their target market will be further segmented based on psychographics and business size.

Product Development:

The strive to develop a better product will be a continuous process. Conducting of market research will be in every three months. They will use the input to develop new product based on data they will get from survey. Thus the product will be designed to meet the customers’ need.

Organizational Structure

The organization is headed by its Chief Executive designatedas the Managing Director entrusted with overall responsibilities of business direction of the organization and leading dynamically towards the attainment of its Vision, Mission, and Goal. In attaining the above mission, the Managing Director is assisted by 4 General Managers & 1 Director, Co-ordination. Airtel has established a strong and formidable sales channel, which consists of direct dealers and its own sales force.

Basic Services:

The Basic Services are as follows:

Caller Line Identification

Call Waiting / Call Holding

Conference Call

Call Divert

Data Services:

Currently available data services are –

Surf Now

Internet

WAP

MMS

SIM Genie menu:

To help the customer avail many exciting contents and Value Added Services (VAS) in the most user-friendly way, airtel offers you the SIM Genie menu – the next generation SIM Tool Kit (STK)!

4.8 What is the SIM Genie menu?

The SIM Genie menu is a detailed menu that you will find in your handset’s menu options as soon as you switch on your airtel phone. These menus give you direct and easy access to contents and VAS, through a few simple clicks of your keypad!

*In some handsets, the SIM Genie menu may be under “Tools” or “Connectivity” sub menu.

SIM Genie menu has been simplified for your usage by breaking into 8 main menus. They are as follows:

What’s New?

» Menu informs about all the existing promotions, packages, and events

Info Zone

» Menu informs about day-to-day sports, news, finance, religion, weather, and allows word finding in dictionary, and checking the time for local and global in time check

» Menu allows addition/deletion/replacement/listing of FnF numbers in Friends n Family, GPRS services, Miss Call Alerts, Ring Back Tone (airtel Caller Tunes), Itemized Billing for postpaid customers, Tariff Change option to migrate between airtel packages, Voice mail service for callers to leave a message when they’re unable to answer the phone, Intl. Roam SMS for International Roaming SMS to use the SMS service when abroad or out of Bangladesh, and Change Mobile Number to get your desired airtel number.

Help & Support

» Menu offers direct help by airtel Contact Centers in Helpline, emergency services such as Police, Fire, and Ambulance by one-touch dialing!

Switch to Bangla

» See all the menus in your SIM Genie menu in Bangla! (applicable for Bangla supported handsets only)

Tariff Plan:

(1). Foorti

To keep you dancing on your feet all day & night long with your friends, airtel introduces to you another addition to its prepaid package portfolio ‘foorti’.

Time Slot

12am to 3pm

3pm to 12 am

12am to 3pm

3pm to 12 am

Voice Call Outgoing in BDT

rate/min

rate/min

rate/10sec

rate/10sec

to airtel

0.36

0.96

0.0600

0.1600

to other numbers

0.79

1.29

0.1317

0.2150

International (ISD)

as per rate plan

Packages Features

Pulse(in Seconds)

10

10

SMS Outgoing in BDT

rate/sms

local sms

0.49

instant cash back

everyday usage

Tk 5

Tk 10

Tk 20

Tk 40

instant cashback

Tk 1

Tk 3

Tk 7

Tk 15

(2).Hoi choi

Introducing Hoi Choi- our new prepaid plan with 1 second pulse and rates as low as half-paisa per second!

Time Slot

24 hrs

Voice Call Outgoing in BDT

rate/min

rate/sec

to airtel

0.99

0.0165

to other numbers

0.99

0.0165

to airtel FnFs

0.30

0.0050

to other FnFs

0.60

0.0100

International (ISD)

as per rate plan

Packages Features

Pulse(in Seconds)

1

1

No of FnF

2

2

SMS Outgoing in BDT

rate/sms

to airtel

0.39

to other numbers

0.39

to airtel FnFs

0.29

to other FnFs

0.29

(3). ADDA

You are the kind of person who loves to keep in touch with a close group of friends. You like to browse the net when bored and make the most of your time on your phone. ‘adda’ will give you maximum fnf and all that at fantastic rates.

Time Slot

24 hrs

Voice Call Outgoing in BDT

rate/min

rate/10sec

to airtel

0.96

0.1600

to other numbers

1.29

0.2150

to airtel FnFs

0.36

0.0600

to other FnFs

0.79

0.1317

International (ISD)

as per rate plan

Packages Features

Pulse(in Seconds)

10

10

No. of FnFs

8

8

SMS Outgoing in BDT

rate/sms

to airtel

0.29

to other numbers

0.49

to airtel FnFs

0.29

to other FnFs

0.49

(4).Shobai

now set the entire world of other operator as your fnf. airtel brings a revolutionary package ‘shobai’ where you can select an operator of your choice and make all the numbers of that operator your fnf.

Time Slot

24 hours

Voice Call Outgoing in BDT

rate/min

rate/10sec

to airtel

0.79

0.1317

to Operator FnF

0.79

0.1317

to other numbers

1.29

0.2150

International (ISD)

as per rate plan

Packages Features

Pulse(in Seconds)

10

10

No of FnF

FnF Operator

FnF Operator

SMS Outgoing in BDT

rate/sms

to airtel & Operator FnF

0.39

to other FnFs

0.49

(5). GOLPO

If you are someone who loves making long conversations, our ‘golpo’ package with 24 hrs flat tariff to any number is something you will fall in love with. Talk to any number anytime at a fixed flat rate.

Time Slot

24 hrs

24 hrs

Voice Call Outgoing in BDT

rate/min

rate/10sec

to airtel

0.96

0.1600

to other numbers

0.96

0.1600

International (ISD)

as per rate plan

Packages Features

Pulse(in Seconds)

10

10

SMS Outgoing in BDT

rate/sms

local sms

0.49

(6). Dolbol

Now join your own community & talk at the lowest rate!

Time Slot

24 hrs

Voice Call Outgoing in BDT

rate/min

rate/10sec

to airtel

0.96

0.1600

to other numbers

1.29

0.2150

International (ISD)

as per rate plan

dolbol numbers

0.36

0.0600

Packages Features

Pulse(in Seconds)

10

10

SMS Outgoing in BDT

rate/sms

local sms

0.49

to dolbol numbers

0.29

(7). KOTHA

Share every little moment with the ones you love with airtel ‘kotha’-the package plan with 1 sec pulse from the very first second.

Time Slot

24 hrs

Voice Call Outgoing in BDT

rate/min

rate/sec

to airtel

0.96

0.0160

to other numbers

1.29

0.0215

International (ISD)

as per rate plan

Packages Features

Pulse(in Seconds)

1

1

SMS Outgoing in BDT

rate/sms

to airtel

0.39

to other numbers

0.49

(8). bijoy 016

Airtel is proud to introduce to you ‘bijoy 016’, a one of its kind offer where you can migrate to Bijoy 016 @ only TK 16 and get 42 paisa/minute package to enjoy whole day and night long.

Time slot

24 hours

Voice Call Outgoing (per minute)

airtel-airtel

42 poisha

airtel-others

99 poisha

SMS Out going (per SMS)

airtel-airtel

39 poisha

airtel-others

39 poisha

GPRS (per KB)

2 poisha

MMS

BDT 5

Packages Features

Pulse(in Seconds)

10

*VAT applicable

Postpaid info

Our postpaid which comes with 3 packages is designed to cater to both your professional and personal communication needs.

service types & others

airtel advantage

airtel classic

airtel exclusive

product proposition

worry free flat tariff

attractive fnf rates

highest fnf features

selling price

bdt 450

bdt 450

bdt 750

connection price

bdt 150

bdt 150

bdt 150

non-refundable deposit

bdt 300

bdt 300

bdt 600

default credit limit

bdt 300

bdt 300

bdt 600

Customer Care Centers and Franchises:

airtel has nine customer care centers around the country located at key points all over the country. These centers are directly run by airtel itself. airtel has another 90 franchises situated major places all over the country. This is the largest chain of retail outlets in Bangladesh. However there are no customer care centers or franchises in the Barisal division. This is quite odd since Barisal is one out of the six divisions of Bangladesh.

Inside the customer care ceneter at Banani.

Mirpur and Tejgaon are the only places in the country with three franchises located with a very close proximity. Especially the ones at Tejgaon(Old Airport Road and Farmagate) two of them are almost with in 500 meters of each other.

Promotional activities are of different types. These are:

In terms of airtel, they are now using advertising, sales promotion, sponsorship program, public relation, internet marketing and direct marketing.

People:

People are those who perform operational role in service organization. In a service organization the secret of success is recognition that customer contact personnel are the key in the organization. The selection, training and motivation of employees can make a huge difference in customer satisfaction. And the appearance, interpersonal behavior, competence, responsiveness, problem solving ability and goodwill of employees can differentiate service organization from its competitor.

There are two types of people in airtel –

a) Internal people – Internal peoples are the employees of airtel both managerial and general stuff.

Customer can contact with airtel Contact Centre, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year through the following mean:

airtel’s Customer Service division functions on the premise of

Pleasing and satisfying the valuable customers.

Resolving their problems

Addressing their queries

b) External people: All of subscribers and the target customers of airtel are the external people. Especially low income based people are their external people.

Process

Process means how to delivery the services. Cheerful, attentive and concerned staff can help alleviate the customer’ problem.

airtel takes no extra time to activate its SIM card. If any person wants to purchase a sim card, then there are few steps to do that like: to pay the fees and required charges, to fill up the forms of the subscription agreement, to bring the necessary documents like photo, photocopy of the forms etc. For a Post paid connection the customer have to bring a signed Registration Form (RF), a copy of his passport or driving license or any other id and two passport size photographs.

airtel’s Contact Centre is equipped with the latest technology and its staffs is trained to customer in the best possible way.

Inform,

Educate,

Help,

The customer care centre of airtel will serve their customers in different sectors like the followings:

Subscribing a new connection.

Transfer of ownerships. (Individual & corporate).

Reconnections.

Change of address.

SIM replacement.

Billing information enquiry.

SIM card lost.

Bill payment through credit card.

However PCO packages are sold only at customer care centers.

Findings and Analysis:

Airtel Telecom gives equal importance to both the branding and promotional strategies to establish the company into the most competitive mobile market.

Role of Brand:

A strategic brand perspective requires managers to be clear about what role brands play for the company in creating customer value and shareholder value. This understanding should be the basis for directing and sustaining brand investments in the most productive areas.

According to the airtel’s view, the main role of a brand is to differentiate it from others.

Besides this, a brand can

Facilitate the introduction of new products because the customer is familiar with the brand.

Facilitate promotional effectiveness by providing a point of focus.

Facilitate market segmentation by communicating a coherent message to the target audience, telling it for whom the brand is intended and for whom it is not.

Facilitate brand loyalty.

Brand Identification Strategies:

There are four brand identification strategies. These are:

Specific product branding

Product line branding

Corporate branding

Combination branding

Company position based on branding strategy:

Other companies already use different brand name for their various offers.

Such as: Grameen Phone use Smile, djuice for their two different offers.

Banglalink use Ladies first, Desh and Rong for their three different offers. Robi use Aktel joy, Robi power for their two different offers.

According to airtel’s view, their strategy of giving different name to different offers is less confusing than their competitors. They argue that customer can easily identify the benefits of their specific offer through the name.

So, they think that airtel owns first position in case of branding strategy.

Promotional Activities:

In terms of airtel, they are now using advertising, sales promotion, sponsorship program, public relation, internet marketing and direct marketing

Advertising:

Print Media

airtel uses print media most to inform the customer about different offers. Among print media, newspaper & magazine are mostly used by airtel.

Newspaper is the first choice to develop the promotion campaign. Newspaper is only media through which each and every people can know about airtel. They give color ads on the Daily Prothom Alo and some other Bengali and English newspapers.

airtel also give ads on the cover page of Anondo Alo, a popular monthly magazine. They give ads on throughout the magazine. These ads are lasts long in peoples mind because people keep the magazine for long time.

Electronic Media

Among electronic media airtel uses television to advertise their commercials.

TV ad can be very effective to create the product awareness in the customers’ mind. In TV ad the customers will get the full classification and characteristic of the product in audiovisual sequence. Through TV ad we would be able to hit the customers’ mind humoristic way and also emotionally as well. In our country most of the people using the satellite to watch different satellite channel like Channel I, NTV, RTV etc. So, through the TV commercial airtel makes aware a huge no. of customers about the product and other offerings as well.

Billboard

Billboard is such a media through which we can inform the customers about the products, changing situations in different time period. Through billboard we can show the consumer latest information in a brief manner and in attractive way in a cost effective way which we can’t do through TV ad. Usually all level of people get attract by the billboard (source: Consumer Survey). It will help them to remind the customer all the time and we know creating brand awareness is a very important thing to increase the sale and to create a place in the customers’ mind.

airtel established a large number of billboard on some most important road in the different city. And they give ads on the over bridge of important road.

Sales Promotion:

Sales promotion is short-term promotional tools based on incentives to increase sales. Such as:

Discount.

Gift.

Bonus.

airtel uses gift and bonous as their sales promotional tools.

∙Gift: airtel offer one extra number with its zem fun+ package.

Bonus: airtel offered eidi on the Eid-ul-Fiter based on total time talked. They have additional bonus talk- time in every packages. Now airtel give cash back offer on talk-time after 5 minutes.

Public Relations and Publicity:

Not only must the company relate constructively to customers, suppliers, and dealers, it must also relate to a large number of interested publics. A public is any group that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on a company’s ability to achieve its objectives. Public relations involve a variety of programs designed to promote or protect a company’s image or its individual products.

airtel sponsor quiz programs on different cricket tournament in newspaper.

Internet Marketing:

Included in this promotion component are Internet, CD-ROMs etc. The Internet may be used to identify sales leads, conduct Web-based surveys, provide product information, and display advertisements. airtel provide all of their information like history, products & services offered, coverage, price etc in the Internet. They always up-date all information.

Direct Marketing:

Customers can get airtel connection to the sales center of airtel is called direct marketing.

Advertising Effectiveness:

All mobile company have to evaluate the effectiveness of all of their advertisements. There are various methods to evaluate advertising effectiveness. These are:

Analysis of historical data

Recall test

Consumer panels

Advertising research

airtel use an outside advertising agency to handle their advertising aspects. They always evaluate their advertisements by using advertising research- it can be used for various activities in advertising strategy development, including generating and evaluating creative ideas and pretesting concepts, ideas, and specific ads.

Purpose of Price-off offer:

There are different reasons for price-off offer. These are

To gain market position

To achieve financial performance

To influence competition

For product positioning

airtel use price-off offer for product positioning into the competitive mobile market. They use it because they are the newest mobile operator in the market.

Main USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of airtel:

There are different selling proposition used by different company. These are:

Good Network

Low price

Better Branding Strategy

Better customer service

airtel’s main Unique Selling Proposition is good network. The network that has been deployed in Bangladesh by Warid is based on the NGN or Next-Generation Technology- a future-proof architectural system which ensures optimum utilization of frequency and enhances speed and quality of both voice and data services.

Promotional Budget:

There are four methods of setting promotional budget. These are:

Affordable method

Competitive parity method

Objective Task method

Percentage of sales method

airtle mainly use Objective task method in case of setting promotional budget.This is a logical and cost-effective method and probably the most widely used budgeting approach. Managament sets the communications objectives, determine the tasks necessary to achieve the objectives and adds up the costs.

Besides this, Warid also use competitive parity method to compete with their competitors promotional activities.

Age and Occupation of Subscribers:

Table- 1: Age and Occupation of Subscribers of airtel

Age and occupation

Percentage of respondents

Teenager

40%

Students

40%

Professionals

20%

Aged & retired persons

0

House-wife

0

Total Respondents

100%

Bangladeshi cultures are becoming increasingly youth oriented. A delightful example can be mobile phone market. But sometimes-proper age positioning is critical for many products like mobile phone. It is such a product where any age group people can use mobile phone. Age is such a demographic characteristic that carries it culturally defined behavior and attitudes norm. Age and profession affect our self-concepts and life-style. Not surprisingly, age and profession influence the consumption of products ranging from cloths to toilet paper to vacation to where to live.

It can say from the survey results that the major portion of the purchasers is the young generation though they might not have the necessary money to make the purchase. They rather influence their financers to provide the money to make the purchase.

Types of Connection:

Table 2: Types of connection subscribers use

Types of connection

Percentage of respondents

Pre paid connection

99%

Post paid connection

1%

Total respondents

100%

It can say from the survey results that most of the customers are using pre paid connection. It is because most subscribers are students and have no fixed income. So they prefer pre paid connection for its low connection charge and there is no line rent. And among pre paid connection Zem Fun Plus is now very popular.

Influence to use airtel connection:

Table 3: Influence to use airtel

Influence to use

Percentage of respondents

Family member use it

10%

Friends use it

30%

Attraction to use new one

50%

Image of the company

10%

Total respondents

100%

The survey shows that most of the customer use airtel connection because of their attraction to use any new. Some of the users use airtel because their friends use it.

Attraction to the Quality of airtel:

Table 4: Users attraction to the Quality of airtel

Quality of airtel

Percentage of respondents

Good Network

20%

Low connection charge

40%

Better Branding strategy

20%

Good coverage

0%

Better customer service

0

Special offer

20%

Total

100%

From the above table it can be said that most of the subscribers prefer low connection charge to choose any operator. They also prefer good network and better branding strategy of airtel. And the table shows that users have more attraction to special offers.

Opinion about brand name :

Table 5: Customers opinion about brand name of airtel

Comment on brand name

Percentage of respondents

Excellent

10%

Good

30%

Not bad

50%

So odd

10%

Total

100%

From the above table it can be said that customers moderately like Zem and Zahi as brand name.

Opinion about branding strategy:

Table 6: Opinion about individual branding strategy of airtel

Comment on branding strategy

Percentage of respondents

Excellent

30%

Good

60%

Moderate

10%

Bad

0%

Total

100%

Opinion about the amount of advertisement:

Table 7: Customers opinion about the amount of advertisement airtel use in different media

Customer comments

Percentage of respondents

More than enough

20%

Enough

50%

Not Enough

30%

Total

100%

The quality of TV commercials :

Table 8: Customer comment on the quality of TV commercials of airtel

Quality of TV commercials

Percentage of respondents

Creative

10%

Attractive

10%

Good

30%

Moderate

50%

Worthless

0%

Total

100%

Tariff and call rate of airtel’s different offers:

Table 9: Customer comment on tariff and call rate of airtel’s Different offers

Tariff and call rate

Percentage of respondents

High

10%

Competitive

60%

Medium

30%

Low

0%

Total

100%

Special offers of airtel:

Table 10: Comment on special offers of airtel

Special offer

Percentage of respondents

Reduced call rate

20

Bonus talk time

20%

Free SMS

10%

Cash back offer

40%

Others

10%

Total

100%

Amount of special offers airtel currently use:

Table 11: Customer comment on amount of Special offers of airtel

Amount of special offers

Percentage of respondents

More than enough

10%

Enough

40%

Not enough

50%

Total

100%

Reaction to new offer provided by airtel:

Table 12: Customer reaction to new offer provided by airtel

Reaction to new offer by airtel

Percentage of respondents

Try it on first introduction

30%

Think to try

0%

Switch to it if good

70%

Never think

0%

Total

100%

Research Findings:

∙ Most of the mobile users in Bangladesh are under youth group.

Bangladesh is pre-paid driven mobile market.

Most subscribers use airtel connection for attraction to use any new.

airtel connection is popular for its low connection charge.

People moderately like the brand name such as Zem and Zahi of airtel.

airtel’s specific branding strategy is preferred by the subscribers.

People think that the amounts of advertisement airtel use are enough to attract the customer awareness.

People moderately like the TV commercials of airtel. They think that TV commercials are not so attractive and creative.

Tariff and call rate of airtel’s different offers are competitive in customers view.

Cash back offer of airtel is preferred by the customer as special offer.

People think that the amount of special offers of airtel is not enough.

airtel subscribers prefer to switch to any new offer provided by the same operator if the offer is good.Conclusion: Airtel Telecom has efficiency in branding and promotional strategies. They use specific branding strategies to differentiate their offers easily in the market gathering. Airtel gives more emphasis on advertising on TV, print media and billboard. They use competitive parity method along with objective task method in case of their promotional budget. According to the customers’ opinion, their way of individual branding is good but brand names are not good enough. Airtel’s TV commercials are not attractive enough. The gift items are also not very attractive. Airtel has the opportunity to place itself in the topmost position by increasing their offer both middle and lower income people. They have to also build sustainable competitive advantages through promotional activities.

Recommendation:

I can suggest the following recommendations for airtel:

Airtel should brand their offers differently for different types of customer.

They should increase brand image through different creative program that come to the mind of customer when they think about mobile phone.

Airtel should coordinate promotional mix elements to develop a controlled and integrated program of effective marketing communication.

Airtel should take the decisions carefully and immediately to capture the market over the competitors.

They should develop creative TV commercials to attract the customer.

Airtel should recognize the opportunities and methods for contacting actual & potential customer to provide them with information about the company and brands.